In Egypt, you check your dignity at the doorstep. You can be subject to a morass of indignity at any time, and maybe worse, if it isn't your lucky day. In the blink of an eye you can be insulted, dragged away and humiliated with no recompense. Simply put there is nothing you can do about it. That's because there is an apparatus that has the power to do anything it pleases to you. In a split second you can be transported into the Kafkaesque absurdity of a certain Mr Joseph K. There need not be a crime, and you will show up every day until they tire of you. Read "The Trial to an Egyptian and he will not find it surreal in the slightest, but in fact, just "the way things are. It's worrying to have an insidious enemy that runs amok in the dark able to strike at any moment, yet it pales in comparison to the biggest threat we face, that of state terrorism. States are in a position to become instruments of terror; they have the resources, the framework, the training and the necessary apparatus, the "terrorist infrastructure . Armies, police, weapons, equipment; all that is required to oppress is under the state's thumb. Can the Palestinians face the entire Israeli state apparatus? Not a chance. No amount of thrown stones can make the goliath budge. In this case the state is able to suppress and oppress millions with its vast resources and its soldiers checkpoint after checkpoint. But to be terrorized by an enemy is one thing, and to live in terror under your fellow countrymen is something else altogether. According to Amnesty International "Torture and other ill-treatment, arbitrary arrests and detention, and grossly unfair trials before emergency and military courts have all been key features of Egypt's 40-year state of emergency and counter-terrorism campaign. The extensive powers granted to law enforcement officials have played a key role in facilitating such abuses, particularly torture. When will the gulag type oppression in Egypt stop? Will it ever? Isn't it about time we put this matter to bed, for the good of our country? Enough excuses about security. How does sodomizing a bus driver protect us in any way? A particularly famous case, bus driver Emad Al-Kabir was sodomized in a police station in January 2006. The video detailing the torture spread on mobile phones and the internet. The two officers dishing out the abuse were recently sentenced to three years each in prison, a landmark ruling no doubt, despite the judge handing out the most lenient sentence available. However was their sentencing only due to the fact that they filmed it, much like the Abu Gharib torturers? At the apex of the 2005 presidential elections referendum came a day of great shame for us all. Plainclothes government recruits fell on female protestors, physically harassing them and tearing their clothes off in public. Symbolically, this heinous crime was a reflection of our collective impotence. The shameful tragedy opened the door for more daring sexual assaults on women in the streets thereafter, culminating in the bizarre events in downtown Cairo in Eid of 2006. A psychological barrier was lifted precisely because the government made it acceptable. You see it in their eyes, officers from any security apparatus. It is an attitude of "you know nothing; you don't understand what dangers we are protecting you from . Wrong. You are protecting the incumbent regime; you are not protecting the people living under its all encompassing hegemonic umbrella. And let us be clear. Some states might oppress their citizens to stifle political dissent, or rogue ideologies, but here the state often oppresses people for fun, out of boredom. You have given a man power and permission to exercise it with wanton abandon and he does, just to while away the long hours of guarding government houses, institutions or checkpoints in empty streets. Torturing your countrymen will not protect anyone from anything. In fact, you're shooting yourself in the foot, creating more alienation, more enemies. But perhaps that is what you need to sustain you, always more enemies, more threats. To give a man of any rank unlimited power over another human being, that is the real threat. If there is any method to the madness, then it is done to instill terror in peoples' hearts, so they do as they're told. And therein lays the tragedy. This systematic oppression has, over the years, eroded the Egyptian character. We are no longer fully human; some things are missing: A sense of dignity for one; but more than that an ability to realize our full potential, not just in the sense of achievement but simply just in trying to be ourselves. All the economy-friendly ministers of the new cabinet stress that human capital is Egypt's most important resource. But apparently the government would like us to be economically productive drones, nothing more; pigs in a cage on antibiotics, to quote one British band. This transcends physical torture. It is constant suppression of the mind, and of the will. Our ability to "be on a metaphorical level is undesirable, an obstruction to the kind of character that is preferred. Now we walk with our heads down, trying to avoid trouble, inhibited, afraid and docile, with a misdirected aggression we let loose on those who are weaker than us. How can almost seventy million people live on a land they feel does not belong to them, or them to it? Disassociated and alienated from the very land you love. And after all this, if you dare speak out, you're a traitor, a Judas to their Christ. Even the Americans have now gone down that path. Pray tell, who are the real traitors, who are the ones that decimate their brothers and sisters beyond repair?
